ALBANY, N.Y. - The UAlbany women's basketball team is set to continue the 2024 America East Championship Tournament.
GAME INFORMATION
#3 Vermont at #2 UAlbany
DATE: Monday, March 11
TIME: 7:00 PM
SITE: Broadview Center - Albany, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 24-5, 13-3 America East | Vermont 21-10, 12-4 America East
SERIES RECORDS: 27-25, UAlbany leads
STATS:
UAlbanySports.com
STREAM:
ESPN+
INT'L STREAM:
AE.TV
TICKETS:
UAlbanySports.com
All UAlbany students are welcome to enjoy all UAlbany Athletics events for FREE with their student ID. Come out and support the Great Danes with the scan of a card - tactile or mobile.
*records as of March 10
UAlbany game notes |
Vermont game notes
A WEEK IN REVIEW
- The Great Danes started the America East tournament with a win, 57-42, over seventh-seeded NJIT on Friday.
- A game that had multiple lead changes in the first quarter proved to go to UAlbany after a 17-8 advantage in the second quarter.
- Senior Kayla Cooper and junior Meghan Huerter led with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
- Freshman Deja Evans held a game-high eight rebounds and two blocks.
- Three Great Danes totaled three steals each - Cooper, graduate student Sarah Karpell, and junior Lilly Phillips.
GREAT DANE REWIND
- Working on defense throughout the entire season, the Great Danes lead the nation while holding their opponents to an average of 50.9 points per game.
- With an "offense comes from defense" mentality, UAlbany adds a top-ten national ranking with 37.72% shooting accuracy from three.
- At the conclusion of the regular season, the Great Danes hold a 24-5 record with 13 America East wins. With an AE quarterfinal win, UAlbany made it 25 wins on the season.
- Seeing just two losses during non-conference play, UAlbany went undefeated in December. The Great Danes saw victories over Merrimack (11.6), Sarah Lawrence (11.13), St. Bonaventure (11.16), Cornell (11.22), Siena (12.2), CCSU (12.6), Marist (12.9), Dartmouth (12.12), Stonehill (12.16), UMass (12.20) and Navy (12.30) with losses to Fordham (11.10) and Stanford (11.26) throughout the first half of the season.
- Adding just three during conference play, UAlbany swept the series against Bryant, NJIT, Binghamton, UMass Lowell, UMBC, and New Hampshire.
- The Great Danes split the series against Maine and fell in both contests to Vermont.
- Kayla Cooper leads the Great Danes with 15.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. The guard also owns a team-high 44 steals.
- Following Cooper with 7.2 rebounds per game, Deja Evans totals a team-high 44 blocks.
- Sarah Karpell is the team's playmaker with 95 assists.
HAPPY AT HOME
- One game into the 2023-24 AE Championship Tournament, the Great Danes have gone 14-1 at home.
- After a record-breaking home opener against Sarah Lawrence at the "home away from home" Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium, UAlbany defeated its first 10 home opponents during the 2023-24 season.
- The Great Danes have lost just four games at home since the start of the 2021-22 season.
- Going undefeated at home in non-conference play, Maine took the second-to-last regular-season home game of the 2021-22 season.
- Flipping the book for the 2022-23 season, UAlbany fell to Colgate and Cornell at "home" (Saint Rose and HVCC, respectively) while Broadview Center underwent its transformational overhaul.
- The Great Danes fell in their first home loss this season to Vermont on February 1.
AUTOMATIC SHOOTING
- UAlbany is ranked 10th in the country in three-point field goal percentage (.377).
- The Great Danes lead the America East in nearly all shooting categories: scoring defense (50.9), scoring margin (10.9), field goal defense (.369), three-point field goal percentage (.377), and three-point field goal defense (.268).
- Two Great Danes are ranked nationally with their respective stats:
- UAlbany has leaders across all the shooting categories:
MILESTONE WATCH
- Lilly Phillips hit 500 career points in the America East quarterfinal against NJIT.
- Helene Haegerstrand is two blocks away from recording her 100th career block.
- Sarah Karpell is five assists away from recording her 100th of the season. This would be the second time in her career that she has reached this milestone.
BETTER BACK-UP
- UAlbany's bench has scored 14.5 points per game this season (434 total).
- Junior Meghan Huerter leads the way, shooting .476 for three (first on the team) with top-four 8.3 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game.
- Fellow junior Abby Ray is third on the team in offensive rebounds (42) and is fifth in assists with 36.
ABOUT VERMONT
- The Catamounts have gone 21-10 with a 12-4 conference record.
- Beginning the season with victories over Saint Michael's (11.2) and Miami (OH) (11.6) before falling to Providence (11.10).
- Earning victories over Quinnipiac (11.17) and Saint Rose (11.19), Vermont was swept at the Gulf Coast Showcase by #18 North Carolina (11.24), Western Kentucky (11.25), and Delaware (11.26).
- The Catamounts finished their non-conference schedule with victories against Dartmouth (11.30), Holy Cross (12.3), Army (12.6), Duquesne (12.16), and Sacred Heart (12.20) with losses to Manhattan (12.9) and Princeton (12.29).
- In conference play, Vermont finished the regular-season series with a sweep over New Hampshire, UMBC, UAlbany, UMass Lowell, and NJIT, a split against Binghamton and Bryant, and two losses to Maine.
- Emma Utterback leads the team with 14.5 points per game and 123 assists.
- Anna Olson makes it two Catamounts with double-digit averages (11.5 ppg) while also leading in rebounds per game (6.0) and blocks (29).
- Andjela Matic has been dangerous from range, shooting .460 from behind the arc.
- Bella Vito owns a team-high 42 steals.
SERIES AGAINST THE CATAMOUNTS
- The Great Danes lead the series, 27-25.
- Current head coach, Colleen Mullen, owns a 5-7 record against Vermont during her time with UAlbany. Until recently, each win had been at home and each loss had been on the road.
- The Catamounts are the only team in the conference to defeat UAlbany twice this season. They are also the only team to beat the Great Danes at home during the 2023-24 season.
UNDEFEATED DECEMBER
- The Great Danes powered through December without one loss.
- Seeing seven opponents, five at home, UAlbany was able to defeat each one by at least 10 points.
- Working as a team in each game, the Great Danes worked for several accomplishments throughout December.
- Four student-athletes earned double-digit points in two different contests:
- Siena (Dec. 2) - Kayla Cooper (13), Helene Haegerstrand (13), Lilly Phillips (11), Sarah Karpell (11)
- UMass (Dec. 20) - Meghan Huerter (15), Phillips (14), Deja Evans (14), Cooper (13)
- Four of the remaining five games had three student-athletes with double-digit points:
- CCSU (Dec. 6) - Cooper (14), Haegerstrand (14), Huerter (10)
- Dartmouth (Dec. 12) - Huerter (20), Haegerstrand (18), Cooper (16)
- Stonehill (Dec. 16) - Cooper (16), Evans (13), Huerter (11)
- Navy (Dec. 30) - Evans (26), Cooper (23), Haegerstrand (12)
- Three Great Danes tallied 20-point performances - Cooper (23 vs Marist (12.9) & 23 vs Navy) & Evans (26 vs Navy)
- Cooper has compiled three double-doubles (14 points & 12 rebounds against CCSU; 23 points & 13 rebounds against Marist; 16 points & 11 rebounds against Stonehill) while Evans added one in the final game of 2023 (26 points & 17 rebounds).
- Consistently improving from outside the arc, three Great Danes have shot 50% or above on multiple occasions:
- Meghan Huerter (5) - .500 (2-4) vs Siena, .750 (6-8) vs Dartmouth, .500 (3-6) vs Stonehill, .714 (5-7) at UMass, .500 (2-4) vs Navy
- Lilly Phillips (3) - .667 (2-3) at CCSU, .600 (3-5) vs Stonehill, .667 (4-6) at UMass
- Helene Haegerstrand (3) - .600 (3-5) vs Marist, .500 (4-8) vs Dartmouth, .500 (2-4) vs Navy
- As a team, UAlbany has shot at least 50% in four contests (Siena, Dartmouth, Stonehill, and UMass) with three games shooting 50% or higher from outside the arc (Dartmouth, Stonehill, and UMass).
DRIVE THE LANE WITH UALBANY HOOPS
- UAlbany will continue its partnership with ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team and City Line Bar & Grill for the third consecutive year.
- Coaches Colleen Mullen and Dwayne Killings, along with select student-athletes, will join ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team's Dan Bahl every Monday from 6-7 pm live from City Line Bar & Grill for a weekly segment entitled 'Drive the Lane with UAlbany Hoops'.
- Fans are invited to come to City Line Bar & Grill to join Coach Mullen, Coach Killings, the student-athletes, and the ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team crew.
- Food and drink specials will be available on a weekly basis as the teams embark on their new seasons and talk hoops every Monday.
GUIDE TO THE AMERICA EAST
- Maine entered the America East tournament as the top seed and the regular season champion.
- UAlbany finished the season close behind with just one less win.
- Sharing double-digit conference wins with the Black Bears and the Great Danes, Vermont finished the regular season third.
- Bryant earned the right to host a quarterfinal round with an 8-8 record and the tiebreaker over Binghamton.
- The Bearcats visited Bryant as the fifth seed with an 8-8 record.
- UMBC (6th), NJIT (7th), and UMass Lowell (8th) rounded out the teams set to compete in a quarterfinal game.
- Tallying just three wins in conference play, New Hampshire will not compete in the America East tournament.
QUARTERFINAL RECAP
- In what proved to be a close contest, first-seeded Maine defeated #8 UMass Lowell, 49-43. A one-possession game with less than three minutes remaining, the Black Bears pulled ahead in the final minute of action.
- UAlbany and Vermont beat NJIT and UMBC, respectively, in double-digit decisions. In Burlington, the Retrievers played an even matchup in the second half but a first-half lead from the Catamounts was too much to overcome. UAlbany gained an advantage in the second quarter that the Highlanders were unable to come back from.
- In the first AE tournament upset since 2018, Binghamton defeated Bryant, 56-51. A back-and-forth contest throughout, the Bulldogs could not overcome a 14-6 second quarter in the Bearcats' favor.
AMERICA EAST CONTESTS THIS WEEK
- Friday - Quarterfinals
- #1 Maine 49, #8 UMass Lowell 43
- #2 UAlbany 57, #7 NJIT 42
- #3 Vermont 54, #6 UMBC 41
- #5 Binghamton 56, #4 Bryant 51
- Monday - Semifinals
- #5 Binghamton at #1 Maine, 6 pm
- #3 Vermont at #2 UAlbany, 7 pm
For more information on the University at Albany women's basketball team, follow the squad's official social media accounts shown below.
Twitter - @ualbanywbb
Instagram & Threads - @ualbanywbb
Facebook – facebook.com/UAlbanyWBB
